Offensive prom invite involving George Floyd photo sparks outrage at California high school
Floyd #Floyd
An Orange County, California high school is under fire over an offensive prom invitation that involves George Floyd, a Black man who died last year after an officer knelt on his neck.
The invitation allegedly read: “If you went to prom [with me], it would take my breath away” and included a picture of Floyd and a Black Lives Matter fist.
NBC Los Angeles obtained a photo of the invitation. It involved a student at Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo.
Parents Angela and Mike said they were made aware of the photo after their daughter, who is biracial, showed it to them, according to the news station.
“It had a Black Lives fist up on it and a picture of George Floyd and at that point and I was like, ‘Are you serious? They’re making this a joke?’ ” Mike told NBC Los Angeles.
The school’s prom is on Saturday night, according to the school’s website. Angela and Mike said they don’t want the student to be involved in the prom.
“They’ve already been robbed of two years of high school through Covid, and so the excitement they had — literally the day before — for prom versus the excitement they had last night, or the defeat they had last night, was heartbreaking,” Angela told the station.
The Capistrano Unified School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The district said in a statement to NBC Los Angeles that the sign is “disgusting, lacks cultural sensitivity, is deeply offensive, and does not reflect the values we strive for in our school district.”
“We serve a diverse community and we value all of our students and families,” the statement continued.
Aliso Niguel High School is about 7 miles northeast of Laguna Beach. About 52.7 percent of the roughly 3,000 students enrolled are white and about 1.6 are Black, according to U.S. News & World Report.